new mechanism once a new level is reached that new measures of potential curfews would immediately come into effect or whether there still is room for decision making at the regional level and that is something that has been strengthened now probably also a weakness in how the german government couple tackles this. decision making also on how the vaccinations are conducted are very very local indeed that's been an advantage in the past when it came to a dusting policy but now it seems to be a week this in finding a uniform way of how to reach everybody above 80 in this vaccination drive so when germany federal and regional governments disagree. well they disagree on a lot less than they did in the past we saw the german chancellor mattoo months ago say that what's been decided simply isn't enough she was tangibly frustrated with regional leaders really does who simply wouldn't follow what was already the advice months ago by scientists who predicted a 2nd wave that would be

a lot worse than it is a lot worse than the 1st pandemic wave we've seen here in germany so far so there is a will to find a new baseline of whether that will mean a departure downwards from the target formula of 50 infections per 100000 habitants in the space of 7 days down to probably 25 or something i very much doubt but there's a willingness to act and i would expect us to see more tightening of measures on top of that extension that is already a given here. function of death rates also alarmingly high here in germany where has the government strategy gone wrong. well you say still but we actually saw more deaths in december pretty much the same number of deaths than we've seen in the entire pandemic period before that and that just highlights that germany simply wasn't braced for this that legally there were not tough enough measures in place

in time to prevent this wave to flatten this 2nd which is a tsunami compared to the 1st one and here there are a lot of question marks at the moment whether the government did enough ordering of those vaccines whether going the european way through brussels was the right way in the end and whether germany 7 have spent a lot more money buying vaccines that probably wouldn't be needed rather than being a bit more economical with this so we expect there to be another meeting on wednesday after the regular cabinet meeting to discuss what can be done to get 1st of all more vaccine and to deliver those vaccines much faster sickly vulnerable groups here and many. germans are program is being criticized for being too slow. what is going wrong with. well one has to say when you compare it with the united

states or with britain who were much faster in getting that underway those are states who decided we simply won't go the regular way which means that the companies producing the vaccine would then also have to pay up if anything goes wrong in the u.s. and britain biotech will not have to pay anything if there is a medical problem with that vaccine so that's the reason why it was slower but there's a lot of question asked right now why there wasn't a lot more ordering why there wasn't more of a financial risks taken now particularly when comparing it to the billions lost every week when you look at the societal damage we're seeing that the 2nd wave is doing right now. our chief political editor thank you very much michel for that corona summit of german governments is going on the moment because i'm back to that story as soon as the press conference starts so we are on it later in the show

maybe. but 1st to england where people are the instructions to stay at home as another national lockdown takes effect prime minister boris johnson announced the emergency measures just yesterday as the country battles a fast spreading new coronavirus variant scotland wales and northern ireland are also bringing in strict lockdowns. are desperate times call for desperate measures with boris johnson announcing england would move into its 3rd national lockdown similarly strict to the 1st one that began last march that means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home. you may only leave home for limited reasons permitted in law such as too short for essentials to work if you absolutely cannot work from home to exercise to seek medical assistance such as getting a test or to escape domestic abuse. with england experiencing

a 50 percent jump in the number of patients in hospital with covert 900 since christmas day scientists hospitals teachers unions and opposition politicians have all called for decisive action in recent weeks. many parents will need support in the coming days because the schools the shut businesses will need support because they won't be able to operate that package needs to be put in place the soonest possible because compliance needs you know clear messaging but also support for people to make sure that they can comply. in wales where patients were among the 1st to receive the u.k.'s 2nd approved vaccine produced by astra zeneca tough lockdown measures have been in place since the 20th of december. hours before johnson's announcement scotland's 1st minister nicolas sturgeon imposed similar restrictions while northern ireland's executive are expected to

follow suit. british hospitals now have more covert $900.00 patients than at the height of the pandemic in spring with resources low and staff overwhelmed. shifts of mind. many. things aren't expected to improve immediately in spring it took nearly 3 weeks after the introduction of the lockdown for hospitalizations to reach their peak. time not to have a look at some other developments in the corona virus pandemic the german firm biotech is warning against delaying the 2nd shot of its covert 19 vaccine beyond 3 weeks saying it has no data about effectiveness some countries have been postponing the 2nd job in an attempt to more people in the nation will begin

a nationwide vaccination program on january 13th president joke of a dodo will be given the 1st dose of the vaccine made by a chinese from brazil is reporting at least 2 cases of the new more contagious corona virus variant one of them after contact with travelers from europe and mexico has granted approval to the astra zeneca vaccine that makes it the 2nd vaccine to get the go ahead. and after some of the other stories making news around the world a chinese court has sentenced the former head of a state owned asset management company to death for taking bribes large army and was also convicted of bigamy the court said the sums involved were in the hundreds of millions of dollars china executes more people than any other country in the world why. iran has rejected accusations that it seized a south korean tanker to pressure seoul to release billions of dollars money that

was frozen as part of your sanctions over tehran's nuclear program or any and troops stormed the vessel in the persian gulf on monday claiming it was polluting the water. saudi arabia's crown prince has signed a deal to bring qatar back into a coalition of gulf arab allies canal's leader shaky bin hamad al tunney co signed the agreement ending 3 years of isolation from its neighbors number of gulf states cut ties with qatar 3 years ago accusing it of being too close to iran. now polls have just opened in a critical special election in the us state of georgia 2 seats are up for grabs in the senate the outcome will shape president elect biden's agenda democrats will soon hold the white house and the house of representatives but if republicans hold control of the senate they can block biden here's the balance of power in the senate where republicans have 50 of the 100 seats democrats and 2 independent us

old 48 democrats need to win both of the georgia seats by as president elect carla harris is vote breaks a tight senate effectively created a majority of 51 polls show the parties are neck and neck with the democrats enjoying a slight advantage. a final pitch to voters that could reshape politics in georgia and the nation 'd ahead of tuesday's vote democrats raphael warnock and john all stuff we're confident of victory. is this is. well the customer is coming to. both candidates also getting a late assist from the president elect joe biden's ability to implement his political agenda would be boosted by democratic victories here the power the power

is learning in your hands unlike any time in my career one story one story can chart the course not just through the next 4 years for the next generation. democrats may also be hoping to capitalize on recent comments from donald trump on sunday audio emerged of the u.s. president pressuring the state's top election official to alter the state's presidential election results citing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. what i want to do is as i use one of on. $11780.00 loans which is one more that we have. on the eve of the runoff georgia secretary of state dismissed trump's claims once again. it's just been a big canard it's been a red herring people trying to blame shifting find excuses why they didn't turn

their people out to win as a republican i'm disappointed with those results. but trump isn't backing down to us president flew to georgia to campaign for the state's republican senate candidates he once more refused to acknowledge his election defeat. the i want to thank you very much georgia by the way there's no way we lost your chair this go with me i was originally going. his time in the white house may soon be ending but donald trump seemed to term and not to go quietly. i was staying in the u.s. where big technology firms have had little union representations over the years but that may be about to change more than 200 employees at google's parent company alphabet it set up a trade union for the u.s. and canada trying to give work as

a collective voice. for tech companies such as google have seen little demand for unions over the years will handle things our space the newly founded alphabet workers' union now wants to give such protests a structure. so well this amount really is. out. the. bounds of. fair wages without exploitation or discrimination as well as a greater say in company affairs are the main goals however it remains a nice pursuit of the more than 130000 employees worldwide only around 225 have joined the new union but the example has been set efforts have also been made at amazon for some time now to an established employee organization.

the whole joins us now to talk about the implications of this well historic move if you will. in the tech industry a bit of a rarity absolutely well paying jobs and perks such as free meals and gyms of largely kept you know in a position out of the tech industry this is actually the tech giant's 1st formal labor union which is open to its employees and contractors in the u.s. and canada this is come about because in recent years they have been stealth walkouts and other actions they've been promoted by. creating the company's artificial intelligence program which ended with the which was going to do with the u.s. department of defense that was then canceled and also the company's handling of sexual harassment complaints now it also follows a recent ruling by the us national labor regulator it's accused google of of unlawfully monitoring and questar questioning the workers who were then fired for attempting to unionize and what we see is in an op ed in the new york times the

leaders of the alphabet workers' union there were 2 google software engineers they said this for far too long in thousands of other google and other subsidiaries of alphabet google is parent company have had a workplace consensus. this by executives our bosses have collaborated with repressive governments around the world they have developed artificial intelligence technology for use by the department of defense and profited from ads by a hate group failed to make the changes necessary to meaningfully address or attention issues with people of color. is this meaning for the term now or is it falling short of real unionization and this is going to be part this union is going to be part of the larger communication workers of america now unlike traditional unions in america this is going to be a so-called minority union and what this basically means is that it can't force alphabets to collective bargaining over issues such as wages now under u.s.

labor law america alfabet can ignore the unions demand and until it has a majority of employees to support it and that means it's going to be a long way off from doing that the a union has less than $300.00 members and alphabet has 130000 strong workforce but it often means if union plans to represent 3rd party contractors but a class of workers at the cost of workers which are bets may ignore the demands. of the whole thank you very much. to some of the other stories making headlines around the world heard of the far right group known as the proud boys has been arrested in washington police terrio was involved in torching a black lives must have been taken from a church during protests last month he was also charged with possessing illegal high capacity ammunition magazines for firearms. police say at least 4 people have been killed in flash floods swept through the streets of the bolivian

city of sucrose that's after torrential rain and hail hit the city local media reported the storm lasted only about 30 mins. fits 2020 of moore's a year dominated by the corona virus which spread across the world are for emerging in the chinese city of whom from the 1st confirmed covert $900.00 fatality last generates to over one point $8000000.00 dead by the end of the year we've charted the development of this global pandemic the epicenter of a global disaster the rouhani went to market in january 2020 have met at least sealed off but it was too late. the novel coronavirus had already spread to humans from animal salt here setting off a deadly pandemic the 1st corporate 19 death was recorded in wu han on january 11th a month later the disease had killed more people in china than the sars outbreak in 2003 with hospitals overflowing

a city of 11000000 went into food lockdown drastic social distancing measures allow china to contain the virus. but by know the pandemic had long spread beyond its borders with europe becoming the next hot spot by the end of march italy had overtaken china as the washed hit country in the city of bearable the army was called in to cart off the coffins of those who perished in the hospitals when emergency wards ran out of ventilators doctors had to choose who wish to live or to die. on a from 9th a grim milestone 100000 corporate 1000 deaths worldwide 2 days later the us registered the most coronavirus deaths in any country or status it maintained for the rest of the year in new york bodies piled up in

a marriage and storage outside hospitals here too there were no longer able to cope with the case law and as a lockdown sought to bring down spiraling infection rates the city that never sleeps grown to a halt. the spread slowed over the summer but that did not stop the global corporate 19 death toll from reaching 1000000 in september sense then colder weather has driven a result of the virus as the numbers keep rising the world is pinning its hopes on newly developed vaccines to wrest control back from the virus. but with doses limited it will be months yet before the global immunization drive really takes off . and to top the global position dr who are now joined by dr margaret harris public health doctor and spokeswoman for the world health organization dr harris vaccination programs have started in many countries yet there have been some teething problems including here in germany all places how happy are you with the

overall progress. good afternoon and happy new year to year and your viewers you should expect teaching programs remember many countries and many of them in europe do not do mass vaccination this is something many countries have not done for years because the routine vaccination programs have kept the infectious diseases that way so. getting a logistics together getting all the people together getting the places getting the training that is it an extraordinary mobilization. what i have to say is i'm very impressed that people have been able to start because that means put tremendous amount of work in over a period when it's normally holidays for most people. when it comes to. so far it seems that every country is looking out for itself is that a good thing or do you think there should be more international corporation and

sharing. what we said is w.h.o. want to see everybody vaccinated around the world in the same period now of course some countries are going to start earlier than others but we want to see the high risk groups the people who are most likely to get sick and die and and also those people who are at risk of catching it because they are the health workers we want to see those groups that's needed all around the world 1st and we're putting a lot if it is and there is a very joint by most countries we've got most countries involved in our codex to synergy representing 90 percent of the world's population. but none of us are really safe until the community you. see across the globe the w. it's all supports the kovacs initiative to make vaccinations accessible to poor countries how is that progress and. so this thing quickly is saying well we've got agreements. up to $2000000000.00 doses and as i said the focus is getting

to 20 percent of each population that highest risk so there is a involves really ensuring that every country is ready and we've been doing that since for about the last 6 months and really working with every country to ensure they've got everything in place and working out which particular vaccines will be most appropriate for which particular populations and countries we're going to be going on right now with our strategic advisory group of experts on vaccines looking at the policy for the 1st vaccine that will give an emergency use listing full that's the finest of by entering. do you have a mask you know to look into your crystal ball that. a rough idea when everybody around the world when they're when there's a herd immunity around the world. so. that it is he and i'm sure everybody know understands is about getting your population getting in the center edge of

your population vaccinated so it's difficult for the vice to transmit you know we don't know enough about this virus to put a number on that and we would be wrong to try. the real trick is to bring the transmission right down while you're building up the immune barrier in your population so the job will have right now and this will speed up that wonderful time when we can relax a little the job right now is to bring your transmission down to do absolutely everything so it the hand washing them are squaring the avoiding the crowds ensuring they have gathered in closed spaces and if you're just crying to really do it if you ask yourself isolate really do it and if you are asking people to self isolate you sure you could support them to make sure they really can do it dr margaret harris thank you very much it's a pleasure. 12 women have joined the ranks of moscow's metro

drivers off to russia lift that controversial legislation that banned women from certain jobs as sensibly because of health reasons women began working for the subway system on new year's day the metro stop hiring them in the early eighty's before that women have been employed as drivers for decades the professionals then listed among jobs with harmful or dangerous conditions the recent legal changes also allow women now to work as long haul truckers truck to drivers and boat skippers. here's a reminder of the top story we're following for you german chancellor angela merkel and regional leaders a half reportedly agreed to extend the country's lockdown through the end of january say they're also talking about tightening the restrictions to further limit the movement of people in corona virus hotspots. that's it from me and the news team don't go away next. magazine kick off with

a review off message day 14 for more global headlines there's always a website. dot com and golfers in berlin thanks for words.

kick off. the christmas season as content management is legal and everything is almost back to miami triumph the moment minds doesn't stand a chance dogma of the day i'm also going to comment on. this straight winning away infringement and there's just no end to sufism is a. story

of prejudice and propaganda. they were called the rhineland bastards. their mothers were germans living in the occupied drying land their fathers soldiers from the french colonies to the phillies after the german children had a hard time and because they were a reminder of the german defeat. they grew up in a climate of national pride and racism. the european population felt that it was important to be white and to stay right like. exclusion and contempt culminated in forced sterilization under the nazis. bestow. commensurately examines the few traces that remain of their existence. because of

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